Surveillance, Past and Present

I was surprised by the ink given the death of Lou Reed. I was more surprised by the revelation that the President was not aware that the U.S. National Security Agency has been listening to the conversations of world leaders. So, either the President is not in complete control, or he’s shorting the truth. This is an ugly story with a bad ending guaranteed.

I know little of surveillance work but it seems that if stealth snooping is uncovered, you suck at your job.

I was the subject of a snoop (is this a valid term?) last century when two FBI agents came to my neighborhood to find out more about me. They wore suits and showed ID, so this wasn’t a covert operation and I only know these “facts” because my father told me. But it is fun to wander back to those days when Jane Fonda was considered to be a traitor by many.

The feds wanted to know if I was associated with any subversive groups. I guess one way to find out is to ask a neighbor. This must have been the lowest grade surveillance operation possible. I passed.

I had been working as a newspaper reporter when I was drafted. And out of 200 men in my basic training unit, I was the only one not assigned an additional eight weeks of training after completing eight weeks of basic training. I was, for the only time in my life, the “last man standing.” The Top read out orders for 199 men, dismissing each of them one by one. He walked over to me—I was stiff at attention—and barked, “Who the hell do you know?” I don’t remember my response, but I certainly didn’t know what he was talking about. I was given 30 days leave on the spot. I went home for a few days where I learned about the FBI visit.

Over the next two years I came across a few files that a news reporter would have salivated over. Hey, that was me, the former member of the fourth estate, staring down at….well, whatever it was is no longer important, save for the pile of 8×10 glossy photos of Elvis Presley in uniform. But there was one photo file, well, why go rogue now?